As cameras and equipment get smaller, both in size and price, films are getting smaller - which means they're getting closer, more intimate and personal. That is a common theme of the San Francisco Documentary Festival (a.k.a. DocFest), which opens Thursday and will screen more than 40 personal documentaries over the next two weeks.

"I like to follow stories as they happen," Greene said. "I like to call it 'present-tense filmmaking,' which is much more exciting for me. They're documentaries that are less information and more characters and stories that unfold as we watch."

You can talk with Greene about his filmmaking beliefs with him this weekend. Personally, of course. DocFest is honoring Greene - not yet 40, with just four films under his belt - with the festival's Non-Fiction Vanguard Award.

His newest film, "Actress," is the opening-night film at the Brava Theater (8 p.m. Thursday) - it also screens at 7:15 p.m. Saturday at Oakland School for the Arts - and Saturday, Greene will discuss his filmmaking philosophy between screenings at the Roxie Theater of "Kati With an I" (2:30 p.m.) and "Fake It So Real" (4:45 p.m.).

Here are four more can't-miss docs:

"Back Issues: The Hustler Magazine Story" (world premiere): Director Michael Lee Nirenberg is the son of a former Larry Flynt confidant and creative director for the magazine during the freewheeling '70s. Pop must have pulled some strings - where else would you see interview of both Flynt and, in a jailhouse interview, the publisher's would-be assassin, who put him in a wheelchair? Add ex-models, porn stars, prosecutors who went up against Flynt, and you have an, uh, revealing portrait of a moment in time. "Think litigiously" was Flynt's dictum. In other words, push the First Amendment to the limit. (9:15 p.m. Sunday and Tuesday, Roxie; 9:30 p.m. June 15, Oakland School for the Arts.)

"Bronx Obama" (West Coast premiere): Louis Ortiz was an unemployed Puerto Rican father with few prospects - until he shaved off his beard. Suddenly, he was dead ringer for the 44th president, and since 2008 has parlayed it into a living as a Barack Obama impersonator. If that's all Ryan Murdock's film was, it wouldn't be all that special. But what makes it fascinating is Ortiz's journey. He feels a responsibility playing Obama; he becomes motivated to be a better person, a better father. During the 2012 presidential election campaign, he even tours with a Mitt Romney impersonator. When Obama says (on TV), "I'm running for re-election," Ortiz nods and says, "So am I." If Romney wins, the meal ticket is over. (7 p.m. Sunday, 9:15 p.m. Wednesday, Roxie; 5 p.m. June 14, Oakland School for the Arts.)

"True Son" (West Coast premiere): Bay Area filmmaker Kevin Gordon was a fly on the wall during a rather amazing story: the campaign by 22-year-old Michael Tubbs, an African American man from the projects, to win a seat on the Stockton City Council. He's running against a Republican white male twice his age with extensive business experience, but Tubbs has his own compelling story: A poor kid who earned a scholarship to Stanford, and looks to put his education to use immediately by entering the political arena, an election campaign that drew a donation from Oprah Winfrey. A fascinating look at not only a compelling person, but what it takes to win a grassroots local election. (7 p.m. Saturday and Wednesday, Roxie; 7:15 p.m. June 14, Oakland School for the Arts.)

"Rich Hill" (West Coast premiere): The Grand Jury Prize winner at January's Sundance Film Festival has Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Palermo following three teenage boys in Rich Hill, Mo., as they look for a way to have a productive future despite their bleak prospects. This is small-town, postindustrial America, where unemployment is high, education standards are low and infrastructure is crumbling. These boys will work their way into your heart. (7 p.m. June 19, Roxie.)

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